The elder Ball had a cup of coffee in the NFL as a practice squad player, but never was activated for a regular season game. His 15 minutes of fame have long since been up, and he is asking his promising son to borrow some more.
Since the first of March, Ball has already claimed his son is better than Michael Jordan, and deserved a $1 billion--yes, with a “b”--shoe endorsement contract. LeBron also dropped a one sentence haymaker after Ball brought up James’ kids in another interview.
Lonzo Ball helped guide UCLA to a 31-5 record, and a spot in the Sweet 16, where they fell to Kentucky. Ball was a first-team All-American, and was the Wayman Tisdale award winner as the top freshman in the country (as voted by the United States Basketball Writers Association).
Ball declared for June’s NBA Entry Draft mere hours after the Bruins defeat by the Wildcats, and is expected to be a top-3 selection. Ball averaged 16.1 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 7.6 assists in 36 games this season. The Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns, Philadelphia 76ers, and Boston Celtics (via the league-worst Brooklyn Nets) are all players for Ball. Ball would love to stay close to home, and play with the Lakers, but would have no problem contending for a championship as a rookie if he fell into Boston’s lap.
If Ball is drafted by anyone other than the Lakers, does any owner want the bagged that is LaVar ball to come along for the ride?!
My father grew up on UCLA during the John Wooden dynasty era, and it carried over to me through his influence. I remember the Ed and Charles O’Bannon championship team of 1995, and of course the Kevin Love Final Four squad of 2008. I remember being excited for Ben Howland to take over the program, as I was also a Pitt fan in my youth, and was dramatically disappointed in the end result.
Steve Alford finally has UCLA back to being a perennial contender, instead of a “one-and-done” tournament hopeful. It makes you wonder how many times he wanted to have Ball ejected from the stands on principle alone.
LaVar took his act to an all-new low yesterday. Quoted in The Orange County Register, Ball stated “Realistically you can’t win no championship with three white guys because the foot speed is too slow.”
UCLA had seven white players on their roster, including Alford’s son Bryce, and TJ Leaf. Both Alford and Leaf were voted to the All-Pac-12 First Team with Ball. LaVar’s statement is laughable in part that the Bruins had three selections on the First Team in the toughest conference in college basketball this season...by a mile.
There’s that part about Ball now being exposed as a full-blown racist as well…
Ask Villanova if they want to take away last year’s National Championship because Ryan Arcidiacono was a white player who went the length of the floor to set up Kris Jenkins for the championship-winning three pointer.
LaVar is killing Lonzo’s NBA career before he even knows where his son will be playing. We all remember how much of a distraction Richard Williams was when Venus and Serena were beginning their careers.
Ball may not have been clinically diagnosed with logorrhea--or diarrhea of the mouth--but someone needs to ship him a few cases of Imodium, quickly!
-JC24